


Better Days

by StrangeTechiques



Category: Iron Man - Fandom, Iron Man 3 - Fandom, Marvel, Spider-Man - Fandom, spider-man homecoming
Genre: Angst, Avengers Compound, Boys In Love, Cuddling, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Harley Keener deserves more recognition, Kisses, M/M, Slow Burn, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony’s sons, i promise a lot of fluff, no idea what to tag, problems at home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18903265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeTechiques/pseuds/StrangeTechiques
Summary: Tony decided that he wanted his two son- I mean, two prodigies, Harley Keener and Peter Parker to meet. He figured that the two of them would get along quite well, so he paid to bring Harley up to New York for a while from Tennessee.The two teens meet, and hit it off pretty well it would seem, but troubles arise, problems from home come back to haunt.Can the two work past these problems and take their relationship further than just friends?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the teaser chapter for the story that will come out. This chapter was based off of a tumblr prompt that I had found
> 
> Prompt:  
> Person A: Hey, do you have a bag I could borrow?  
> Person B: The only bags I have are the ones under my eyes, and they’re specifically designed to carry the burden of my existence.  
> Person A: …  
> Person A: Literally all you had to say was no.

With a not too pleased look being sent towards Harley, Peter did note that the blonde did look rather tired. Compared to the rest of their face, his friend held pretty big and noticeable bags under their eyes, but what made the difference was the fact that Harley hadn’t been acting tired at all, all afternoon. The other seemed to be holding up fine, even now as they wore that usual expression of theirs, hands in the pockets of the light red hoodie that they had been wearing the last few days. 

Peter frowned lightly at them, setting the box of bolts that he had picked up back on the shelf that he had pulled it off of. The two of them had been spending the afternoon with Tony in their lab, they had been for a few weeks now actually. Though this time around, they had been doing a lot more of messing around then actually doing work, so Tony, in a final act to try and get them to behave, sent them off to the Compound’s warehouse so they could grab more supplies to aid in what the three of them had come together to make. At this point it was more like himself and Harley who were working on it, but Harley had mentioned that that was probably the point. Tony, while he was teaching them about a lot of things about the items of interest that the duo had, was more there to get his two prodigies to bond, giving them access to the things in their lab so they could expand upon their talents. 

Collectively, the two of them had made quite the collection of impressive things from the access that Tony had given them in the lab, Peter’s things more on the science spectrum while Harley’s lied on the more technical side, but they did put their talents together every now and then. The works they could make were quite impressive, and Tony had even voiced a little concern on the things that they could potentially put together in the future the more that their skills and knowledge improved. 

Harley had only grinned when Tony had said that, whatever thoughts had been going through their head, Peter wasn’t wanting to know. Harley could be intense, especially since they didn’t seem to fully care all that much about what other people thought of them, but Peter also knew otherwise. Though, he kept that a secret. 

“Harley, we talked about this-” Peter started, turning towards his friend, who only casted them a gaze with a brow drawn up, waiting for them to finish whatever Peter started to say to him. That carefree attitude was ever present. “One, you really should look into getting more sleep, and two if things are getting rough back home then you can tell me-”  
Peter didn’t get to finish what he was saying before Harley put a hand up, gaze turning a little displeased at they cut them off. “And that’s where I stop you Spideyboy, there isn’t any problems at home, okay? Everything is just, fine, in Tennessee alright? We don’t need to have this discussion right now because there is nothing at all that needs to be discussed, you got it?”

There was something wrong, Peter could tell, but he didn’t dare try and pry the answer out of Harley. The last time that he had tried to get the other to open up to him didn’t end that well. They were still getting used to each other, only have spent a few weeks together at most with each other. 

With a small nod, shoulders slumping in defeat, Peter nodded softly. “Alright, alright, I believe you, but you do know that you, can talk to me when you need to, right?”

Harley didn’t answer right away, staring at Peter but at the same time not. That slight anger from before had faded, and instead left the blonde with a more blank, but at the same time almost surprised face. It soon softened after about thirty seconds. “Yeah, I know. But let's just get this stuff back to Tony before he starts to wonder what we’re doing. He knows that we know where all the things are in here.” 

“Oh! Right, almost forgot that we were supposed to be grabbing things for him-”

“Of course you did.”

“A bag would’ve been pretty helpful right now though.”


	2. Chapter Publication Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is just The information regarding the publication of the chapters off the story.

I will try and post as much as I can, but my plan is to do at least one chapter per week, the teaser might count as the chapter for this week, but it might not. I am busy with school so who knows, but I’m really motivated to write this story so who knows. My plan is to post a chapter on Wednesday every week until it is completed. 

Teaser Date: May 20, 2019  
Chapter 1: May 22, 2019

Chapter 2: May 29, 2019  
Chapter 3: July 7, 2019  
Chapter 4: July ??, 2019

More dates will come out when I start posting the actual chapters. And I also promise that the chapters will be much longer than the teaser.


	3. Chapter 1

The car pulled into the long driveway or path of sorts that led into the compound that the Avengers were currently staying in. The new home base is what Happy, Tony’s driver? Butler? Body Guard? Harley wasn’t quite sure, the man just seemed to be running errands for Tony or something. He was pretty sure that Tony wouldn’t have just hired some random person to fly him in from Tennessee, but you never know. He hasn’t the Stark in years, too many years if you ask him. 

The large building dawning the symbol of the Avengers on the side of the building drew closer. The whiteness of the exterior was slightly tinged by the darkened windows of the car that he was currently sitting in. With his chin rest in the palm of his hands, he waited the next minute until they came to a stop just outside the entrance to the building. Looking down at his phone, Harley paused the music that he had been playing through his headphones and looked up at the small window that opened, revealing the peering gaze of Happy from the mirror, he didn’t look too happy. 

That thought drew a grin out of Harley. 

“Hey, kid, you can get out of the car now, Mr Stark is waiting for you inside.” Happy spoke this out, voice matching their expression. Harley just rolled his eyes light before sliding his headphones off of his head, letting them rest around his neck before opening the door and stepping outside. 

“I would, say that it was a pleasure driving with you, but I think that’d be too, courteous.” Harley punctured his sentence with a smile, fake obviously, he had asked too many questions apparently in the first, minute, which he had a right to ask _some_ questions at least. So the drive wasn’t all that pleasant from the airport to here. 

Trailing along the side of the car, he opened up the trunk and pulled out his suitcase and carry on bag from the back, shutting the trunk close and then looking up at the tall, full of windows building. The shade that the building casted was quite appreciated, with the summer rolling in, and New York seeming to absolutely _love_ it’s humidity, even standing outside he was already feeling like he was melting. Not that different compared to Tennessee though. It was even more hot, and got humid too. This was, slightly a cool down, but not really. He was still melting, just another thing to add to the list of complaints internally. The list wasn’t all that big though, it probably only had a few things on it, and those things were obvious. _Heat_ and _Tony’s driver_ , he really shouldn’t be complaining. 

Tony got him out of a tough spot at home, and paid for the whole expense of the trip, and he was going to be in their custody for the majority of the summer, saving him from even more unwanted time with his family and the people of the town he lived in.  
With a deep exhale, cheeks puffing up in the process, Harley adjusted the strap on his carry on bag before walking up towards the entrance to the building. He could hear the car being driven away presumably to be parked somewhere behind him, leaving him alone to deal with whatever was beyond those doors. This was new territory for him, new, but impressive. Anything Tony built was impressive in Harley’s mind, the man all those years ago in his garage opened his eyes to many new opportunities for his future, one that he wanted to model after Tony. They did, make that kind of future possible by buying him a lab. 

Now he was going to get to see and use the real thing. The lab that Tony Stark worked in, what greater thing could come than that? The brief, but explicit items that Tony had put on a note for him regarding this whole trip made it worth it. Along with, no longer having to be home, Harley didn’t think he could deal with another day with family and townsfolk.

Upon reaching the doors to the compound, the glass doors opened automatically much to his enjoyment, not that it wasn’t something that he hadn’t seen before, it just removed the hassle of having to open a door and keep it open as he dragged his stuff behind him. Nothing was more annoying than trying to get your stuff in a door but not being able to hold the door open and getting it caught on your stuff. That had happened briefly at the airport, and needless to say, Harley wasn’t too pleased when it went down. He didn’t show any physical embarrassment, but there was definitely some internal.

Shaking that thought aside, Harley made his way into the lobby of sorts of the compound. The first thing that he noticed was the people moving about. Just random people, dressed nicely as they moved about. _‘I thought this was the AVENGERS compound, not some office building.’_ That thought crossed his mind as he watched the people walk by, some talking on their phones, others in groups, some people hurrying about with a clipboard or two in hand. Only made him really not want to rush his final years at home. Being an adult, didn’t look fun, especially if this is what you had to do for a living. It was doing someone else’s dirty work. In his opinion at least. 

Harley looked over his shoulder and out the glass doors for a moment, seeing that the car he came in was no longer in sight, no turning back now. He could only deal with the fact that if Happy was Tony’s designated driver, then he was in the right spot. But they had mentioned that Tony was waiting for him inside, and with glances about, he didn’t see said man, and that made him huff a little. What now? Wander aimlessly in a building that he knew no layout for? 

_Probably?_

“Well this is going great, wonderful planning-” Harley muttered that to himself, shoulders slumping a little as he inhaled. To some unknown call though, someone had come up near him, addressing his name and catching him off guard. It resulted in a jump, and a glare. 

“You must be Harley Keener, Mr. Stark had told us that someone of your description would be coming by this afternoon. As you are the only one in whom I haven’t seen before and are the only one with luggage, you must be him.”

Harley took a few seconds to recover, and when he did he looked the man who addressed him over. The man who had addressed him was fairly tall, making him have to look up a little to meet their gaze. Their complexion was fair, hair light in color and parted in a way that Harley could only say was odd. And that was saying something, considering his own hair wasn’t the most, organized either. What stuck out to him the most was their heavy accent. Sounded familiar almost, like he’s heard it before, but he couldn’t pinpoint where exactly.

“You have great observation skills.” Harley started off quite blatantly. The other didn’t seem to mind, only tilting their head a little. “But yeah, I’m Harley. Is, uh, Tony too busy to actually greet me or something?” He questioned this, looking away slightly as he absentmindedly rubbed at the base of his nose with the back of his hand, force of habit. 

The other man smiled lightly, warming smile is what it was. “Not quite, he is available right now, just sent me out to get you and bring you upstairs.”

“Ah.”

“Guess we shall be going then?” Without waiting for Harley to give an answer, the man started to walk away, going towards the direction of a hallway. Harley was a bit confused at first, but soon snapped into thought that they were leading him somewhere, so he quickly followed after them. He trailed behind them, leaving a few steps worth of space between them, he didn’t quite want to stand right next to them. 

“So, who are you?” He asked that suddenly, not breathing around the bush at all. He looked up at the other, though only got to see half of their face from the height ordeal. “You sound, really familiar.” 

“My name is Vision, as for us knowing each other, I haven’t met you personally.” 

Harley frowned lightly, not that he was talking to the Vision, but for the fact that he hadn’t met this man before, and yet they sounded exactly like a voice he had heard before. 

“Though, I was once acquainted as Mr. Starks AI JARVIS, I’ve been told we sound very similar.” 

_That’s what it was._

With brows slightly raised, Harley did recall hearing the voice coming from Tony’s suit. That thought and a few others kept in his mind as the two of them stepped into the elevator that he hadn’t even known they arrived at. For a few seconds, Harley remained quiet, trying to think on how they got Tony’s AI into a body, and how JARVIS turned into the Vision. Nothing made sense. 

He was about to ask about it when the elevator stopped, the doors opening and leading into a more, homey looking section compared to the lower floor. The second floor must house the Avengers then. The first floor is probably for, whatever work was required to live here. 

“Mr Stark is just in the room over there, he will give you the rest of the information that you will need regarding to your stay here.” Vision spoke this out, turning away after that, Harley was still taking in the details of the room when they did, Harley turned his head only just in time to see the Vision’s human form fade away into the form he knew of them as. After that, they were gone. Phased through a wall. 

That left the blonde a little dumbfounded for a moment, blank faced. “Okay then.” With his blank expression turning more into one of unbelief, he turned his body back in the direction that they had pointed him off to and started going that way. The place was pretty empty from what he had seen so far, not having spotted any of the other Avengers besides Vision, but that didn’t prove to be so much of a problem anymore as he arrived at the door that Vision had instructed him to go to. 

He only looked at the door for a few seconds before knocking on the door without any hesitation. He would’ve straight up opened the door, if he hadn’t reminded himself that whatever could be on the other side could potentially be something that he didn’t want to see. He was somewhere where he didn’t know where anything was, who knows what could lie beyond that door. 

Before Harley had knocked on the door, he had picked up on the sound of voices, albeit, muffled voices from beyond the door, but the knock seemingly was able to silence those voices. Harley lowered his hand from the door, holding his breath for a small moment as he moved into rocking back and forth on his heels, waiting for whatever was coming next. 

The door opened abruptly, revealing just the man who had summoned him here. Harley grinned at seeing the man, he’s only heard their voice over the past few years, but being able to see Tony in person again was beyond amazing in his opinion. They still looked the same, same hairstyle and facial hair trimming, same dorky type casual clothing, but the only thing that stood out, was the absence of the blue glow from their arc reactor. It was also odd, to be a little above eye level with the man he used to have to look up to. 

There was a small bit of silence between them, but Harley easily cut through it. “Hey Tony-” He looked over their shoulder to see a few of the other Avengers in the room, he was able to identify most of them. He trailed his gaze back to Tony before continuing. “Am I interrupting, some sort of, super secret Avengers meeting? Promise I won’t share any details.” He snickered a little. 

Tony just casted a sort of unimpressed look right back at him though. “If this was, a meeting, you wouldn’t be hearing it in the first place, and right now, I’m just questioning if I got the right kid, last time I checked, the kid I knew, was pretty small.” 

“Hey! I was nine, plus that was years ago, I’ve caught up to you old man.” Harley kept his grin, but Tony still looked a little displeased, but no one could miss the fondness that had risen in their eyes. 

“Haha, very funny Harley, not all of us are gifted with height.”

“Ha! So you’re admitting that you’re short!”

“No, no, no. I’m not admitting to anything, stop making accusations kid.”

Harley shook his head, folding his arms across his chest with a raised brow, grin filled look. Now with his older age, and better understanding, of well, everything, it felt a lot more like a conversation between two people than an adult and a child. Much better than the conversations all those years ago, not that they didn’t mean the world to him, they did, Tony did, but he’d never admit to that.

Tony turned his head to side to look at the others in the room before speaking a few final words to them. “I’ll be right back, gotta deal with this first.” He stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him as he did, turning to look over at Harley in the process. 

“Well, it's been a while hasn’t it, should’ve reached out more.” Tony made that comment, their displeased expression from before fading into more of their neutral one. Tony placed his hands inside of the their pants, gaze on him.

Harley hummed a little in thought, putting on a show of his thoughtfulness as he adjusted his stance to shift weight more on one foot compared to the other, casting thoughtful eyes towards the ceiling. “I would’ve Tony, but you see, I never got the chance to save your number, your servers are pretty secure. Nothing a little poking around can’t do. You should’ve called _me_ more.

Tony groaned a little. “Ugh it's like talking to a younger version of myself. Why did I agree to house you for the summer?” The last question was muttered out, perhaps a question more for Tony himself than for him to answer, but Harley took the liberty to answer it, rhetorical or not.

“Cause you missed me so dearly and yearned to see me again?” He put on his best, innocent, doe eyed expression paired with a light but small smile. 

That just made Tony take a few steps back, face a mix of disgust and amusement. “Can it kid, that look doesn’t work on you well. Don’t, don’t do that again and we won’t have a problem.”

 

Harley was pretty relieved to let the face drop, he knew too well on the fact that putting on the innocent look wasn't’ his best look, he guessed that it probably didn’t look too good on Tony either, but getting Tony to make such a face would probably be quite the hassle if you asked him. Settling into allowing a calm smile to rest on his face, Harley kept up the conversation, though changing the topic. “So…” he trailed off a little, elongating the ‘o’ at the end of the word as he clapped his hands together once, eyes trailing off to the side. “Got a place I can, I dunno, set my stuff down maybe? My arms are getting kinda tired carrying this stuff of mine around.” He looked back at Tony when he finished the question, waiting for his answer.

The question had seemed to relight some part of Tony’s memory, the sudden way they perked up at the question making Harley laugh a little. Tony was always, kinda an expressive person. “Of course you do, got a room set aside for you and everything. You’ll be staying in one of the open rooms where everyone else sleeps.”

Harley had to pause at what was said to him. _Where everyone else sleeps?_ “I’m staying in the area where the other Avengers are sleeping?”

 

Tony gave him a blank look, before turning his head to the side, confused expression on his face. “Yes, that’s what I said. Are you sure I’m the old man here, or are you hard of hearing. I really can’t tell.”  
With the confirmation in check, Harley couldn’t help but allow his surprised expression to become noticeable. “This is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever been able to do.” He spoke this out, surprise turning into a wide smile. A whole summer with Tony, and the other Avengers. Things really could get better, plus his bragging rights would be off the charts. Not that quiet anyone at home would believe him though, no one ever did. And yet, none of it mattered to Harley, he said what he wanted, looked how he wanted, didn’t matter at all on what other people felt about him.

“Considering that it’s me, then yes, this is about the coolest thing that you’ve ever been able to do.” Tony said this out, not exactly in direct terms to him, but still enough for it to be directed towards him at the same time. That was just how Tony was, and frankly, Harley wouldn’t have it any other way, even if he was given the choice to do so. 

He kept his smile on his face though, bright, just as it was all those years ago on that cold December night in Tennessee. Not a smile that you would see on Harley that much anymore. The world sentence is cruel, and most children don’t know that early on, but Harley did, he was stripped of his full happiness at a very young age. Sincere smiles weren’t what you saw on the blonde practically at all. “So, gonna show me to my room now? Or we going to continue to stand out here? Not that I mind either way, my shoulder is just getting tired of lugging this bag around.”

Tony nodded, muttering out ‘right, right,’ and started heading down a new hallway, not looking back, but calling them along. “I, can and I will leave you behind kid.” 

Sounded just like Tony, so he didn’t have any problems, he would do the same thing too if he was being honest here. Harley easily caught up with Tony, taking a place besides them. Tony was someone that he was more than comfortable walking besides. The walk to the dorms of sorts, or that is what it looked like, was relatively short, so there really was no conversation that went out between them. He did have plenty of questions, but those would be answered later. He had the whole summer to ask questions, and push people's buttons for the fun of it.

Tony opened up the door to the room that he would be staying in, gesturing his other hand towards the room. Harley casted a glance towards Tony before turning into the room, pretty impressed with the state of things on how it was in there. The room was much bigger than the one he had at home. The outside wall was widows, certainly more windows than he had ever seen in a bedroom, his at home held the generic one or two small ones, the rest of the walls were well, walls. They were painted a nice light tan color, nothing that stuck out incredibly like a yellow or a pink. Towards the right of the room, in the middle of the front wall and back wall was a bed bigger than a twin, but not quite a queen, so a double is what he guessed. The bedding was the same tan color as the walls, two pillows paired with the sheet and an extra folded up, thicker blanket at the edge of the bed. The rest of the room was fairly simple, a desk was across the bed on the other side of the room, a chest at the foot of the bed, full of who knows what, if it was even full of something. If it wasn’t then he certainly wouldn't know what the heck to put in there. Lastly, there was a dresser, and a door to what he presumed to be either a bathroom or a closet. 

A simple room in the general sense, but it was more room like than he had ever seen. Honestly, the couch in the garage back home was more homely than anything inside his actual house was. 

Harley had taken in his looks of the room, walking over to the bed with a small twirl as he did, setting his carry on bag on the bed while leaving his suitcase by the chest. “Nice room, better than any I’ve seen.” he spoke this out without realizing it. Tony of course had heard it, not having left him alone yet. When he turned back towards the door, Tony was in the room, or somewhat, he was leaning on the doorframe, one hand up on it, the other by their side. 

“I know kid, but I’m going to let you settle in, do whatever and someone will find you when its time for dinner alright?” Tony waited for Harley to make a response, but he simply just nodded as a response. “Great.” Tony turned around to leave, but before he actually went anywhere, he spoke a few final words. “Glad to have you back, Harley.” 

Tony was gone after that, leaving him alone in that room, door ajar slightly. What they had said though, meant a great deal to Harley, and a smile he never showed anyone was there on his face. Tony meant a whole lot more to him than, probably anyone would know. 

-  
-  
-

The rest of the evening had passed by without any problems. Harley had gotten settled into his room, setting things where he deemed them necessary to be for the summer. After that he was left with the afternoon to explore and wander around. That is how he discovered Tony’s new AI, Friday, and how he became acquainted with a few of the other Avengers in the compound. Steve had been, interesting, but of course, following after Tony, he had been a bit skeptical on them. The blonde man was very polite though. Natasha had been a little cold, but nonetheless, still nice in a sense, she was the definition of badass, so of course he liked talking to her. He had found Vision again, not asking the question he had wanted to ask them earlier, even though he wanted to. Wanda was kind enough, though Harley couldn’t quite get a read on her. There were a few others, but he did what he could to spend time with Tony when they were around. Dinner had been interesting just as the rest of the day had been, and that was about it. 

After dinner, it had proven to be pretty late, and with a full day of traveling, Harley was ready to check out. So that’s what he had done. He retired to his room shortly after dinner, changing into nothing more than a loose t-shirt and some flannel pants he brought. It was, pretty cold inside of the compound, the AC was powerful if he did say so himself. He expected that to the end of his eventful day, but to his surprise, there was one last surprise of the day.

It was late, around 10:00 or so when the little surprise happened. It wasn’t that it was actually a surprise, just unexpected. Harley had just about finished up with getting ready for bed, but was taking a moment to look outside. He had the lights off, the only light in the room being the small stream from under the door, and then the silver lighting that came through the windows of the room. It was a pretty sight, big and powerful mood standing out among a sea of scattered stars. He was simply taking a moment to himself before a few soft knocks on the door alerted him, breaking that silent filled moment. 

Harley looked away from the window, turning his head to look at the door, he could see the shadow of a person from behind the door. “I’m still awake, you can come in.” He said this after a small while, and with that said, the door opened slowly to reveal Tony. He grinned. “Come to kiss me goodnight? How fatherly of you, I’m flattered.” he turned towards Tony in full now, no longer having to look over his shoulders. 

Tony rolled their eyes, sighing slightly. “We are not there, and won’t ever be there, just came to say goodnight and see if you need anything, not _kiss_ you goodnight.” Tony walked up to him, hands in the pockets of their pants. 

“Can’t say I’m disappointed, but I’m fine, really, don’t need anything.” Harley shrugged lightly before folding his arms. Tony nodded.

 

“Good, good, glad to hear it. That means less work for me, but anyways.” Tony faced Harley head on, brown eyed gaze soft on him. “Everyone seems to like you so far, minimal complaints, let's not make it a lot okay?”

“No promises.”

“...anyways. Wanted to inform you that another person will be coming tomorrow, Peter. I’ve told you about him, right?” 

“Yeah, I think you have, Parker right?”  
Tony beamed a little at seeing that he seemingly knew of this Peter Parker that Tony was fond of. “Yup, that’s the kid. He’s about, a year younger than you, you’ll like him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s chapter one! I really worked myself these past two days to get this out today for you guys. I’m trying to follow a Wednesday post schedule. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated and will probably help me stay motivated to write this story. 
> 
> Hope this chapter was good enough for you guys, and I’ll see you next week!


	4. Chapter 2

Morning came around slowly, or at least what had been left of the morning. With Harley no longer having to worry about waking up early for school, he was now able to indulge himself back into sleeping in. With the previous school year having been cruel on his sleeping schedule, finding the urge to sleep in late was no hard task for the young mechanic. Not even the blinding sunlight peering in from the window lined wall was enough to stir him from his sleep. What had been the deed to wake up Harley from his slumber, was the sound of voices, excited, and bountiful, voices coming from somewhere down the hall. 

The first thing that Harley was met with upon stirring awake had been the sun in his eyes. The appearance of the unwanted, and blinding light in his face made him close his eyes tightly and turn away from the window wall. He rolled onto his side, facing the other wall as he allowed the sun to beat down with warmth on his back. It was calming, the day seemed to be full of promises, well, when he decided to actually get out of bed, then it would appear so.

Harley was doing his best to try and go back to sleep, desperately trying to catch up on all the sleep that was lost over his junior year in highschool. Though that plan wasn’t so easily achieved. Even though he was doing his best to fall back asleep, now that he was awake, it was a slow but sure process of also waking up at the same time. The more aware he became, the more that the voices down the hall became noticeable. They started off as muffled sounds in the background, but once his senses came back, it proved to be more than something that he could easily ignore. 

With a small groan, Harley rolled onto his back again, half of his face being attacked by the sunlight coming in through the windows. He casted a side glare towards the windows, only now noticing the presence of the blinds that were neatly tucked onto the sides of the windows. They could’ve been closed? That thought, in entirety was probably a stupid one, but you never fully know, a bedroom window that didn’t come with blinds didn’t seem to be the best choice. But modern buildings he’s found, or seem, don’t really have the appearance of blinds. But since this one did, that proved to be a bother to him.

Frowning slightly, he looked back up at the blank ceiling. The voices down the hall were what his main focus was now on. He couldn't make out any words that were being spoken, but he could tell that there were plenty of voices included inside of whatever conversation was going on out there, but it appeared to be a more happier conversation for the tones of the voices that he could hear. 

“What warrants such, loud and happy conversations in the morning?” Harley softly muttered to himself as he sat up in bed, covers falling down to rest in his lap which is where he put his hands for the time being. A yawn passed his lips, making his eyes close for a moment as he sat there, trying to decide what his next course of action was going to be. And at that moment, seeing what the commotion outside his room, seemed to be the best idea. 

So it was only a matter of seconds before Harley tore himself from the bed, having to take a moment to catch himself from the headrush that came from the motion but still made his way over towards the door, a hand on his head as he walked through the temporary darkness that enveloped his gaze. He made it to the door safely though, placing a hand on the doorknob, turning it and pushing open the door. Around then, his vision came back to him, and upon opening the door he was met with another blast of colder air from the strong AC circulation outside of his rooms, and the voices he heard, not so muffled. 

Running a hand through his hair as he walked down the hall, he listened to the voices, being able to make out some of them. The most recognizable voice of them all was Tony’s, which just so happened to be the first voice that he heard.

“So, school this year was another success?”

The next voice was new, one he hadn’t heard before. It held a younger tone than everyone else’s that he heard the previous day. It was also a male’s voice, so with not even seeing who it belonged to, Harley already had some ideas as to who it was.

̈ ̈Yeah! Everything went perfectly this year, Mr. Stark.”

“That is great, good job kid.”

Around that time, Harley had rounded the corner, coming into the dining area of sorts, there was a fairly large kitchen in the background, and a table with quite a few chairs, so that’s just what Harley assumed. He wasn’t noticed directly at first, so it gave him time to look around and see who was there. There was Tony, standing near the kitchen island counter, Steve, Sam, Vision and Wanda all sitting at the table, but there was one person who stood out. They were standing near Tony, young in appearance, curly brown hair on their head, dawning a light blue sweater and jeans. But if there was one thing that stood out the most about this one specific person, was their smile. It was the brightest but softest smile Harley had ever seen on anyone. 

But what made it worse, was that he got, distracted, by it. It was impossible to look away. So it was almost embarrassing when Tony had to say his name quite assertively to grab his attention. He snapped out of his stare, luckily not feeling any heat rise up to his cheeks, but it was definitely internal. 

“Good morning sleeping beauty, a little out of it are we?” Tony teased this lightly, folding their arms with a small grin when he noticed that he had gotten ahold of Harley’s attention. 

Harley though, only frowned, passing off a very quick, but noticeable flipping off. Tony only huffed. “Seems like a bad mood instead.” is what Tony had muttered with a slight brow raise and exhale. Harley held a bold personality, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. 

Harley dropped his hand back to his side, blowing out some of the stray hair that had fallen into his face as he walked over towards the kitchen island, resting his arms and leaning forwards lightly on it once he got there. He made a side glance over towards the brunette. They held a mainly blank but curious expression on their face, they were observing him, just as he was to them. Except, on Harley’s end, he could feel a little pull on his heart. Dammit...he’s cute. 

“So…” Harley started, tearing his eyes away from Peter to look back at Tony. “Mind informing me who this is? I have a guess, but I’d like to know that I am indeed, right.” He ended that sentence with a grin. 

“Right, this is-” Tony never got to finish his sentence. 

“I’m Peter. Parker. Peter Parker.” Peter had cut Tony off, taking the step to introduce themself personally. When Peter finished, Harley couldn’t help but notice the light pink that dusted over their cheeks, probably at the crazy way that they had introduced themself. Harley only smiled, amused and fondness coming off of that smile. 

He stood up fully, walking over towards the brunette. He stood taller than Peter, and upon stepping in closer, he could watch as their gaze had to shift upwards to meet his own. “Well, Peter, Parker, Peter Parker. I’m Harley Keener. Tony has spoken quite fondly of you over our calls.” 

Peter seemed shocked, wide eyes looking at him, then at Tony, then back at him. “R-really? Mr. Stark has mentioned me?” The surprise in their voice made Harley chuckle lightly. 

“Yeah, he talked about you quite a lot. I was starting to wonder whether or not this, perfect Peter Parker existed or not.” 

The flush on their face darkened a little, and from what Harley could gather, it was because of what he was saying about the things that Tony had told him. Peter looked up to Tony then, pretty obvious though, if you asked him. The information seemed a little too much for Peter to process, eventually they had just looked down at the ground, playing with the ends of their sweater sleeves. 

“Mr. Stark had mentioned you a few times, too.” Peter soon muttered that out, drawing a wide grin out of Harley as he turned his head to look at Tony. “Aw, you do care.” He teased that, drawing another eye roll out of Tony. He seemed to draw a lot of those out of Tony, Harley was almost compelled to start keeping a list of how many times he got an eye roll, long sigh, or annoyed look out of Tony. Harley looked back at Peter now, seeing that the brunette was once again facing up towards him. 

Watching those eyes made him completely space on the fact that perhaps he should be saying something, but Peter wasn’t saying anything either so it must’ve been alright. But the silence probably went on a little longer than comfortable as Tony broke the silence by clearing his throat. And upon them doing that, Harley blinked a few times, looking away from Peter. He had no idea what was going on, what he was doing. 

The whole romance aspect of life was something that he never had an opportunity to experience. He had no friends to discuss or talk about these things with, his mother certainly wasn’t any help, whatever time of day she had that wasn’t occupied at the bar, it was spent with his sister. Harley didn’t know much, but the thought of this being the start of an attraction to another human being was frightening in a sense. 

He kept his gaze down, not meeting anyone in the eyes, though he still listened to what Tony said. “That was an entertaining introduction, but I do believe there’s things to get done, so Mr. Keener, why don’t you get ready for the morning, and we can go from there, sound good?”

Putting up his hands in the finger gun motion, Harley started backing out of the room, giving a small wink, that was mostly directed at Peter but could be taken as just a wink in general. “You’ve got it boss.” 

“Harley-” There was a bit of a warning tone in Tony’s voice, but it didn’t matter to Harley. He simply laughed and turned around, leaving the room to head back to his own to get dressed for the day. Whatever Tony had planned for the day was surely supposed to be something good, but at this point, the blonde was more focused on the idea of messing with Peter. Whatever it was about that brunette, it just made him want to be the reason that their face is red. 

Opening the door to his room, he was once again met with the bright sunlight that slid in through the windows and onto the floor and items that were in its rays reach. Though this time around he didn’t have to squint and turn away, with his eyes adjusted to the light, this was generally nothing. Harley shut the door with his foot and immediately went into the process of stripping himself of his shirt and pants, tossing those articles of clothing onto the bed before moving over to where he placed his clothes, pulling out a simple solid color shirt and putting that on, along with a pair of his jeans, and then topping the look off with his red hoodie, sliding that over his head and flattening it down with a few pats of his hands along his chest. 

The final step was dealing with his hair, but Harley didn’t anything more than running a hand through his hair a few times to make it look less like he rolled out of bed. Deeming himself ready to go, Harley went back towards the door, opening it up and walking out, and almost, just almost colliding right into Tony; he had caught himself before he did. Slightly startled he looked at the man who looked down at him like nothing had happened. “Ah, Harley, perfect timing. Really, that’s incredible, must-” they took a small pause. “Must teach me how you do it, but anyways. We’re heading down to the lab, lets go. And don’t fall behind because I won't be sending someone to go looking for you.” 

With that, and not another glance, Tony started walking again, and who was trailing behind them? Peter.

Seeing the brunette. Harley grinned, stepping into line with the other teen, lightly nudging them in the side with his elbow. “So, how did you and Tony come to meet?” he asked Peter that, wanting to start some sort of conversation to get to know the other. There wasn’t anything else he could really do at this point in time with the state of their relationship. When things became more concrete, Harley was sure that he’d be able to dish out his best material for the other.

Peter looked up at him in surprise. “O-Oh! Well, actually, Mr. Stark found me, I helped him with a few things, and then we go from there.” they shrugged lightly. Their response held a lot of room for holes, and he was very inclined to ask them about all the missing details, but decided against it. Harley nodded, putting his hands inside the pocket of his jacket. “How about you?” 

He hadn’t quite expected for them to ask the same question back at him, but his small amount of surprise didn’t show. With a cocky look on his face he spoke out his response. “Well, Tony broke into my garage a few years ago. I, of course, heard it, even though it was pretty late at night. Almost shot him with a potato gun, but he criticized my gun and its abilities so I had to prove him wrong by breaking a glass jar with it. Sadly, that was all my ammo, so I couldn’t hit him with a potato. But in the short term of words, I helped him save the world and everything. Helped worked on their suit, gave Tony a few panic attacks, yada yada yada. We’ve kept in touch since then.” 

With a glance towards Peter when he finished, they looked, utterly shocked. “You gave Mr. Stark panic attacks?” 

It looked like he ruined their whole world, and he couldn’t help it if he burst out into laughter by their reaction. Peter frowned a little, not getting in any sense on why he was laughing. His laughter rang through the halls for decent few minutes, Harley clearly enjoying a thought that Peter, nor the bystander Tony could quite understand. When those minutes of enjoyment camet to an end, Harley moved one hand out of his pocket to wipe at the tears that had gathered in his eyes. 

Dropping the hand, he looked over at Peter who had a range of emotions crossing their face, and personally, Harley liked it. Everything about Peter just grabbed his attention, they were cute, and he couldn’t help it. “Sorry, sorry-” Harley started, letting out an exhale, a few small chuckles coming out as well. “But, I was ten when I met Tony, and when you have a superhero in your garage, as a kid, I think asking questions is kinda something to be expected. So I’m sorry if I was a little curious asshole back then.” He shrugged a little. “I asked one to many questions, and might’ve mentioned one too many things. I always worried about Tony though. So you can stop worrying.” His words seemed to assure Peter just a little bit, they still seemed utterly shocked that he managed to trigger two panic attacks out of Tony.

Harley didn’t mind though, he kept his grin, blue eyes cast in the brunette’s direction with a soft sort of adoration. His heart was betraying him, but Harley was hopeless to stop it. And frankly? He wasn’t sure that he wanted it to stop.

It took Peter a little while longer to recover from their shock at hearing what he had done to Tony when he was 10 years old. Both himself and Tony had long ago moved past those specific details of that night, and instead focused on the future, or more so the potential future that he was getting out from Tony. Harley honestly felt, deeply honored that he had been enough to grab Tony’s attention in this way. They cared a whole lot more than anyone else in his life had, and there wasn’t enough thanks in the world that he felt would be sufficient to give the hero. 

But luckily, Tony wasn’t exactly looking for any special or high amount of thanks from him. 

The brunette next to him glanced away for a moment, brown eyes drawn off in thought; thoughts that he wouldn’t be able to identify even if he stared at their face for a long while. Eventually though, Peter looked back at him, a side glance towards Tony who was still leading them in the process. “Well, I haven’t given Mr. Stark any panic attacks, but I do tend to get on his nerves sometimes.” They came off as a mix of both flushed and proud in a way. Their cheeks were dusted a light red as a smile poked at their lips, and that look, honestly made Harley’s heart flip a little in his chest again. 

Gosh this boy was going to kill him. 

Harley managed to pull out a lopsided smile of his own, a hand coming up to his hair to brush some of it back out of his face. He hummed softly for a moment, dropping his hand as he moved to fold his arms across his chest. He cleared his throat lightly to rid himself of any gay panic stuttering that might decide it wants to arise. “Not like its any competition to see who can get Tony more annoyed, but, as someone who knew Tony at a young age, I am more inclined to think that I annoyed him more than you did. I was helping sure, but probably not in anyway that Tony was used to.” when he finished, Harley grinned, a cocky grin at that, one that had Peter’s own smile widening as they punched his arm lightly. 

“You totally made it into a competition.”

He faked a gasp, dropping his arms from his chest and instead replacing it with a single hand over top the center of it. A mock sort of hurt look. “I am hurt, personally that you would think that I of all people, have made this into a competition.” His expression was made to match his mock sort of hurt, one that had Peter chuckling a little, their professional composure that they were trying to build faltering a little bit. 

They looked about ready to speak before Tony beat them to speaking. “I’m sure you two are having a lovely time talking about who annoyed me more and when they did-” you could practically hear the eyeroll in their voice. “But, if you’d like to focus back in, then you’d see that we’ve arrived at the lab.” Both of the teens looked up when Tony announced that, but the man didn’t pay any mind to either of them as he imputed his password to the lab, the door swinging open when it was put in. 

Tony was the first person to step into the room, Peter following behind, and then Harley. And upon stepping into the room, the blonde couldn’t help but stop in his tracks as he eyed the things in the room. He knew that whatever lab Tony had would be a hundred times better than the small one the man had given him in his garage. They were a billionaire for crying out loud, of course all their stuff was better, but this was still amazing. That was the only simple word he could find on his tongue to describe what he was looking at. 

Tony must’ve noticed the awestruck look because of the laugh that slipped out of them. It was a small, quick laugh, but still hearty and enough to break Harley out of his small shocked silence. “I can see that you’re impressed, incredibly so if I am to be so bold and say it, but you’ll start catching flies at that rate.” Tony looked all too, entirely pleased as Harley collected himself with a small huff. “How about you come over here, and I can show you the plans I have whipped up for us to work on. I’m sure you’ll like them more than the lab itself. And Peter-?” Tony looked over at Peter who had sat them-self at a lab bench already. Peter glanced over at Tony. 

“Yeah?” 

They shared a few quiet words after that, words Harley couldn’t catch, but words that made him curious. He gave them a narrow eyed look for only a second or two as he moved over towards Tony, ready to hear about whatever plans they had for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh boy. I know I said I would update this in May, and now it’s July, but lemme tell you, I got busy. The end of the school year, and then me getting a j o b. Man those things are hard, how do you guys do it? 
> 
> And then I generally forgot about the story for a little bit. I hope to be better, but you never know with me. 
> 
> Hopefully I can be given some forgiveness.


End file.
